This accident prevented me from keeping pace with Benoit and Augustus and in the attempt I became quite exhausted.

Feeling convinced that their being delayed on my account might prove of fatal consequence to the rest I resolved on returning to the house and letting them proceed alone in search of the Indians.

I therefore halted them only whilst I wrote a note to Mr.Back, stating the reason of my return, and desiring he would send meat from Reindeer Lake by these men if St.Germain should kill any animals there.

If Benoit should miss Mr.Back I directed him to proceed to Fort Providence and furnished him with a letter to the gentleman in charge of it, requesting that immediate supplies might be sent to us.
On my return to the house I found Samandre very dispirited and too weak, as he said, to render any assistance to Peltier, upon whom the whole labour of getting wood and collecting the means of subsistence would have devolved.

Conscious too that his strength would have been unequal to these tasks they had determined upon taking only one meal each day, so that I felt my going back particularly fortunate as I hoped to stimulate Samandre to exertion and at any rate could contribute some help to Peltier.